The Dead Roo

Yesterday John Howard announced that he will, if re-elected, hold a referendum to amend the preamble of the Australian constitution to include a “statement of reconciliation” and to “recognise indigenous Australians”
The first thing to note about the proposed change to the constitution is that it is legally meaningless. The preamble of the constitution contains no specifics […]

“Our purpose is represent, raise and monitor issues affecting unpaid family Carers through the representative participation of Carers as candidates in Federal and State parliaments. The Carers Alliance will represent the rights of unpaid Carers of people with disabilities, mental illness, chronic illness or issues of frail age who need assistance at differing times in […]

Gardening, it’s a political act. What bigger rebellion against the “golden straightjacket” could there be, to instead of buying food, grow your own and eat it?
It’s been some months since I posted a new batch of photos from my political garden. In the time since the June update I’ve done and learnt a LOT about […]

Like other Greens involved in the current election campaign, I’ve had cause for despair at times. When you think it’s tough being Green, spare a thought for those Greens working in some of the worlds harder political situations.
Ladies, Gents and others, let me introduce you to the Green Party of Saudi Arabia.
The organising environment presents […]

                                              click here to see cartoonist Peter Nicholson’s animation of “Beds are Burning”
“Whatever happened to the revolution?    We all got stoned and it drifted away”    So sang Skyhooks in the 1970’s about the demise of the anti Vietnam war movement.
The 70’s revolution may seem to have disappeared in a puff of strange smelling smoke but it […]

Another Democrat bill is at the senate inquiry stage and well worth looking at. It proposes a scheme for trading EECs (Energy Efficiency Certificates), and allows even domestic consumers to join in the fun.  So far, it looks like I’ll be putting in a short message of support.  No, not carbon trading, efficiency […]

University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. - Henry Kissinger
Yeah, Rebecca and I have been absent this past week.
Rebecca was contesting a position in the ANU student’s association elections, I was lending a hand.
Kissinger was right, the stakes are tiny in any campus election, and thus all too often the […]

The majority parts of the senate committee report on the NT emergency response (to an opportunity for a land-grab) are scandalous in that they misrepresent almost all the submissions I’ve read.
You’d think the main part of the report (the Committee’s View) would mention something about the contents of Anderson/Wild "Little Children Are Sacred" report, wouldn’t […]

Peter Andren has withdrawn from the NSW senate race for health reasons. You can read the announcement on his MySpace page here.
It is interesting to note one particular concern he notes in the media release:
“I intend keeping a watching brief on electorate matters during my treatment.
“All the various services and duties of my electorate office […]

There are only a few hours left to send your thoughts to the public inquiry (yeah, announced today, report required by Monday) on the Howard NT Land-Grab in response to the Anderson/Wild report on child abuse in NT Aboriginal Communities. No time. Gotta rush.
Send a note to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee […]

This afternoon the House of Representatives passed a contemptable piece of legislation. It’s passage tarnishes the reputation of our Parliament and of our country.
The Citizenship Testing Bill passed with the support of both the Labor and Liberal parties, with one noble exception, Liberal MP Petro Georgiou.
I encourage anyone who support’s Petro’s stand on this issue […]

This is an old piece that some may have already seen at Larvatus Prodeo  last year.   As a new Roo-er, I notice a definite “Green” perspective here, and also perhaps a very different readership to L.P. So I offer it again to the bloggosphere for consideration. It is an excerpt from a longer essay entitled […]

I was alerted a few days ago to the existence of new anti-Green attack site GreensWatch. The site tries to be a dossier of shocking information about the Greens, but doesn’t really succeed at that. It is, at its best, a dubious, badly-written polemic against the Greens, and doesn’t succeed at digging up much of […]

As of a few minutes ago, almost all votes have been counted in the by-election for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly seat of Greatorex. If there’s something to be said about this result, it’s that it wasn’t much of a victory for anyone. The most notable thing appears to be the low turnout, down to […]

I’ve been following developments in the Papua New Guinea legislative elections over the past couple of weeks, and as usual, there’s been some quite interesting results. The election appears to have produced remarkably more stable results than previous parliaments, presumably in large part due to electoral reforms which replaced first-past-the-post with limited preferential voting. This […]